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Homer sets out to determine what his middle initial stands for. In the process, he meets up with two of his mother's old associates from her days as a radical in the 60s and decides to give the hippie lifestyle a try.

Mr. Burns plans to eat a jar of pickles for lunch, but can't get the jar open. Neither can anyone else in the nuclear plant. Mr. Burns feels he needs tougher employees, so he directs Lenny, Carl and Homer in a recruitment commercial promoting the plant. Impressed with his own acting, Homer decides to become an actor and starts filling out the paperwork to join the Screen Actors Guild. Bart points out that the S.A.G. form calls for Homer's middle name, but he's only written the initial "J." Homer admits that he doesn't know his middle name. He consults Grampa, who also doesn't know, but suggests where they might find out. They drive to Groovy Grove Natural Farm, a farm run by two middle-aged hippies, Seth and Munchie, who were friends of Homer's mother in her radical days.

They point out a mural she painted which reveals Homer's middle name: "Jay." Seth and Munchie reminisce about the old days (including going to Woodstock), and Homer sees how care-free his life would be if he were a hippie and thus decides to become one.

Homer dons a poncho which had belonged to his mom and carries around a Frisbee (with "Homer Jay" written on it) as part of his hippie regalia.

His new lifestyle, however, disgusts Lisa and annoys Marge when he tries to get her to quit shaving her legs and start going without a bra. He also shocks and disgusts Maude Flanders when he moves the couch outside and lies on it naked, playing with his Frisbee.

Seeking acceptance, Homer re-visits Groovy Grove where he joins Seth and Munchie in their game of hackie-sack. The fun soon ends when Seth and Munchie have to go back to work, as they have their own organic juice plant right in the barn, where they produce "Seth and Munchie's Garden Blast," a drink which has become very popular in Springfield. Because Seth and Munchie say they have to go back to work, Homer accuses them of not being real hippies and so convinces them to join him in a "freak-out." After the trio spend a couple of hours freaking out squares, they return to the barn, only to find that it is flooded with Garden Blast and broken bottles. Homer's Frisbee has ended up inside the "juicillator" machine, jamming it and thus ruining a whole batch of juice, which means that Seth and Munchie will miss a big shipment. Furious, they remind Homer he's not a hippie and never was one.

That night, Homer resolves to make it up to Seth and Munchie: He harvests their crops, re-makes the batch of Garden Blast, and then delivers it to every store in town. In the morning, Seth and Munchie see what Homer has done, and point out there weren't enough vegetables left for the whole batch of juice. Homer says that he thought the same thing, until he looked behind the barn and found the other garden, "the one with the camouflage netting." However, that was Seth's and Munchie's personal crop -- peyote -- which means that Homer has just delivered hallucinogenic juice all over town.

When Police Officer Lou drinks some of the juice and starts having hallucinations in the police station, Chief Wiggum realizes what has happened and soon the police surround the farm. Homer comes out front to defend Seth and Munchie and hippie honor by reminding the police of the values taught by the 1960s, placing a daisy into each of the officers' rifle barrels as he does so. However, Wiggum fires his rifle, and the daisy from it ends up lodged in Homer's forehead. At the hospital, Dr. Hibbert says he cannot remove the flower, as he is a doctor, not a gardener.

Donick Cary wrote the episode after he got the idea where the town gets high and pitched it to the writing staff. This is the second Simpsons episode (after "Flaming Moe's" in 1991) to feature two directors instead of one.